Too Many Barbs, Not Enough Barbecue

Steve Schmidt has achieved the impossible, something Obama could only dream of: He has actually made the media fall out of love with John McCain.  He curtailed the Fauxverick’s informal interaction with reporters on the "Double Straight Talk Express," and instituted a strategy of attacking the media every time they criticize his candidates or point out that they’re chain-liars.

This was really not a good idea.  The media’s love for McCain and his phony Straight-Talking Maverick image was the best thing he had going for him, and it’s falling apart at the worst possible time.  McCain picked a running mate with more skeletons than substance, and he needs to look presidential and credible in the midst of a financial crisis.  Both very risky propositions when you can’t count on the media to report your version of reality.

T-Rex says it best:

Maybe the McSame stooges think they can run a successful campaign against the media.  Somehow, I doubt that.  The media carries your message as surely as the soundman in a club engineers your sound.

The media are not a filter, they’re an amp… but only if they’re on your side.  Now that McCain has so cruelly spurned his erstwhile lovers, his shiny new running mate is getting tarnished by stories about her dodgy record as mayor and governor, and he has to explain how he can be trusted to do the right thing on the mortgage meltdown when one of his top advisers was getting $15,000 a month from Freddie Mac until the government had to take it over.  Not. Helping.

Schmidt and McCain will find it much harder to pull off a successful smear-and-mirrors campaign without the kind of media assist that Dubya got in 2000 and 2004.  But they’re going for it anyway, because it’s all they know, and it’s all they’ve got.

Related posts:

1. Steve Schmidt Sells Shit by the Seashore
2. Palin’s Shot Across Pawlenty’s Bow
3. Did Palin Misrepresent Her Creationist Beliefs to Get on the McCain Ticket?
4. Sarah Palin, a Dead Parrot, and Scrotal Asymmetry
5. Early Morning Swim: Rachel Smacks Down Ed Gillespie on “Meet the Press”